White House ‘Resident Artist’ now at gallery on Hill

Santa Dearest:

I know it’s not quite Halloween just yet, but I want you to be sure to dispatch one of the elves posthaste to The Carol Schwartz Gallery in Chestnut Hill before Howard Watson’s Philadelphia watercolors are sold out! One of his paintings of the Philadelphia Museum of Art will fit quite nicely under my Christmas tree (and perhaps an evening view of City Hall as well).

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“We all look, but few of us really see,” the talented Watson explains, shedding light on his working methods for “Watercolors of Philadelphia 2003.” He paints every day, working from sketches and photographs, sometimes “painting off the top of my head.”

This show is a symphony of cityscapes capturing vistas of the Schuylkill and Boathouse Row, skyscrapers and monuments — at sunset and in moonlight — frosted with a silvery snowfall or festooned in spring’s first delicate blossoms. The flags of the nations flutter in the Parkway breeze and colorfully-clad pedestrians stroll freely about our historic city.“Every painting has its own feel,” Watson remarks, “but each should be a little different.” Skillfully, he orchestrates various views and perspectives of familiar vistas. He’s up to the challenge, having once painted 14 different scenes of Boathouse Row for the Acme board. “Then they asked for three more!” he remembers, laughing.

Now a resident of Wyncote, Watson grew up in Pottsville, as he puts it, “the county seat of Schuylkill County and Home of Yuengling beer.” His was a family accomplished in the arts — his father, grandfather and a brother painted, while another brother and his mother were musicians. Young Watson was a singer in the vein of Rollin Hayes, but he knew it could be difficult to make a living in the music world, so he turned to the arts.

It was a wise move, as he was selling his work before he graduated from the University of the Arts. He went on to teach watercolor there for seven years. But isn’t watercolor a notoriously difficult medium? “We never say that,” Watson chides. “Positive thinking is very important. If you can read and write, you can learn to paint.” He cites examples of students who come to his workshops having never painted and, yet, by the end of the week, they are on their way.

Art collector and friend Set Momjian introduced the artist into White House circles and Watson went on to serve as “Artist in Residence” during President Jimmy Carter’s administration.
Some years later, Momjian contacted Watson a few days before President Clinton left for a state visit to the Philippines. It seems the Philippine president had attended West Point and Clinton wanted to present him with a painting of the military academy. “It was Friday evening,” Watson recalls, “and the painting had to be finished by Tuesday morning. All I knew about West Point was that everyone wore gray!” He delved into old pictures and prints and created a composition, grumbling all the way. When his wife left for a class at 7 p.m. on Monday night, he was unsatisfied with the work, but by the time she returned at 10:30, he had created an entirely new work, based on what “I had learned painting the first one.”

Afterward, Watson learned from a government source about “a story making the rounds at the White House.” When Clinton presented the painting illustrating cadets parading past a clock tower, the Philippine president was so moved that he wept, remembering his own days as a cadet and his wife waiting for him under that very clock tower.

Not surprisingly, Watson’s works are found in the collections of a number of other celebrities. He met entertainer Perry Como on the golf course and subsequently sold him a painting of Market Street. Former Vice President Walter Mondale commissioned a political rally composition.

When Watson painted murals down at the Spectrum a number of years ago, he was given season tickets to the Flyers and ’76ers in thanks. His 11-year-old son adored the seats behind the Sixers’ bench, and Watson got to know Jack Ramsey, who was coaching at the time, as both had sons named Chris. Ramsey ultimately chose several Watson paintings for his shore house.

Watson stays busy. When he’s not painting (or golfing), he lends his talents to Allied Artists of America, the American Watercolor Society and the Philadelphia Watercolor Society. He served as the latter’s president for 10 years and now functions as an archivist. He’s taught workshops abroad for years and is ready now to head up to New England to catch some fall color in Vermont and New Hampshire on paper.

And Watson generously shares his gifts with a number of charitable causes. “I’m interested in helping people in general,” he says modestly, discounting the fact that his greeting card designs raised almost $800,000 for the Philadelphia Committee to End Homelessness.
Watson’s delightful cityscapes will be on view at The Carol Schwartz Gallery through October 31. The Gallery, at 101 Bethlehem Pike, may be reached at 215-242-4510.